5-6 December 2005

Trip Book: Making Love … The Bruce Campbell Way – Bruce Campbell

Monday, December 5
A rather uneventful day. It was just a pleasant car trip from Fairbanks to Anchorage, albeit for the fifth time in six months. I forgot to check to see if Denali (Mt. McKinley) was visible. The 20ºF (-7ºC) Anchorage was a lot more pleasant than the -30ºF(-34ºC) in Fairbanks over the past weekend. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. I had a really big room, much too much for just me for less than 12 hours. Time to go to bed, I have to leave for the airport by 6 am.

Tuesday, December 6
Wow, long day. I’ll keep the entry short. I spent about eight hours in the Aniak Frontier Flying Services terminal. Shageluk was snowed it. It has been for the past five days. The forecast was for a few more days of heavy (and worsening) snow. They had caught a short window yesterday when they could land and were going to attempt another flight today. Martin and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk to get socked in there. I took the mid-afternoon flight back to Anchorage. I was the only passenger.

“What did I do for eight hours in the Aniak terminal?” you ask. Read most of a book (Bruce Campbell), played tag with an eight year old, had a snowball fight with same eight year old and few other children, and walked around outside with quarter size snowflakes falling on me.

See Marc's next stop in Seward.

18-19 December 2005

Trip Book: Counting Up, Counting Down – Harry Turtledove

Sunday, December 18
Another “bright and early” morning, starting at about 4:30 am. This time, however, I was smart enough to catch a few hours of sleep. I picked up Jeff Greene (my next door cube mate) and drove him to the airport (he was on the same flight to Anchorage). I had an Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage, an Era flight to Aniak, and a Hagland flight to Shageluk (this was a fun trip to book). I arrived at about noon and Innoko River school teacher Joyanne Hamilton was there to greet me at the airstrip. Joy didn’t recognize me at first due to my recent haircut.

I was setup in the guest housing, which was much more room than I needed, but I won’t complain since it is one of only two residences with running water. The principal (Tim Stathis) grew up in Syracuse (like me), and his family owns a highly regarded pizza shop on the (Syracuse) University’s main drag.

Around two in the afternoon, four students joined Joy and me for site set-up. I hitched a ride to the study site on the back of one of the student’s snowmachine. I realized on thie trip out I much prefer to be the one driving. Even though we weren’t going very fast, it was much scarier sitting there in the back, just holding on for dear life. It seems a lot faster and like you are constantly going to slip off.

The snow was between 4 and 15 cm thick and the ice was 58 cm at the TWIT. There was quite a bit of overflow over the middle part of the line, which made the set-up a bit messy. I taught the two boys, who were new to the class, how to do the measurements and did a refresher for Joy and the girls who had done it in years past. The set-up took a few hours longer than needed, but we all had a great time joking around and learning while doing it.

Monday, December 19
The morning started with packing and breakfast in the house. Oatmeal – quick, easy, and yummy. Then I went to talk to Joy’s class for about an hour and a half. While some of the students were attentive and participated, Monday morning did not agree with all of them. Immediately after the talk, I departed for the airstrip. Again, luckily, the flights home were uneventful and on time.

Joy Hamilton (far left) and her high school students at Innoko River School.